Editor's note: This story has added information provided by the school district about when it provided in-person classes in 2021.

While Flint Community Schools will receive the most federal money in the state on a per-pupil basis to deal with the COVID pandemic, the troubled district has not kept its doors open for in-person learning.

The school district has had less than six months of classroom-based schooling since schools were shut down in March 2020, according to research done by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. In the 2020-21 school year, the district was closed until March 22.

The school district also closed schools in August 2021 because some of its buildings did not have air conditioning. The district also closed schools in what it called “an abundance of caution” after the school shooting in Oxford in November 2021. A school district spokesperson stated that Flint has had in-person classes from the beginning of August 2021 through December 2021.

The school district stated this week it is now closed to in-person learning until further notice.

Flint Community Schools will receive $156 million in federal COVID aid, or $49,996 per pupil, by far the most in the state of Michigan on a per-pupil basis. By comparison, Grand Blanc Community Schools is 11 miles from the Flint school district, and it will get $1,736 per pupil in federal COVID aid.

And Flint Community Schools has left parents in a daze with its constant updates and announcements on whether children will be taught in school or not.

For example, on Jan. 1, the district posted on Facebook that in-person classes would begin Jan. 3 and signed off with, “See you soon, Scholars!” Then on Jan. 2, the superintendent sent out a letter stating the district would be shut down completely on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4, without a remote option, before going virtual on Jan. 5-7.

However, on Jan. 6, the district announced that it would stay virtual for the next week starting on Jan. 10.

On Jan. 13, the district stated it would be virtual until Jan. 24.

And then Jan. 19, the district stated it would be virtual until further notice.

Officials of the River Raisin National Battlefield Foundation in Monroe hope the $100 million park project they’ve proposed at a site where American soldiers were slaughtered in the War of 1812 will draw as many visitors each year as Gettysburg.

The money will come from both taxpayers and private contributors. The project also includes a $20 million educational center housed in a former sports complex facility.

To put the $100 million price in perspective, from 1812, when that war began, until its end in 1815, the U.S. national debt grew from $45.2 million to $119.2 million, according to debt.org.

The state of Michigan has already contributed $6.8 million to the Monroe project. The federal government will add another $2 million to $4 million according to 13 ABC Action News. It is not known whether more state and federal dollars will follow.

The city of Monroe has approved spending nearly $90,000 in local tax money on architectural plans for the project, according to the Monroe News. The Monroe City Council has not responded to questions Michigan Capitol Confidential emailed about other city spending related to the park.

The battle and massacre took place in 1813 at Frenchtown, which is now the city of Monroe. Almost 1,000 U.S. soldiers were killed or captured by the British and Canadian force and the Native Nation Confederation. The American dead could not be buried due to threats from Native Americans, according to the foundation’s website.

The foundation’s website says the education center will teach, among other objectives, how to identify racism and propaganda, in an effort to prevent abuse of power, genocide, and forced assimilation. It will also educate visitors on “confronting humanity in the world today including unchecked power, colonization, refugees, and race-based societies.”

Plans for a park include a recreation of Frenchtown with period houses, barns, a trading post, and vineyards from the time of the war.

Comparisons with the Battle of Gettysburg in July of 1863 appear to be a stretch. Coming 50 years after River Raisin, it was bloodiest battle of the Civil War, and the spot where President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, which has defined the meaning of that conflict ever since. The American Battlefields Trust reports Gettysburg has received between 1 million and 2 million visitors every year since the 1980s, and the local economy receives $92 million annually in benefits.

Boosters say they anticipate the River Raisin National Battlefield will draw more than one million visitors annually. It had 239,000 visitors in 2017 according to Crain’s Detroit Business.

The park is owned by the National Park Service, which gave it the national battlefield designation in 2011.